New chocolate offers a real taste of history

updated 12:54 p.m. ET May 10, 2006

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. - What does 225-year-old chocolate taste like?

Historians and scholars think they know. They researched how roasted cocoa beans were used to make chocolate in colonial times, and came up with a product they call American Heritage Chocolate.

The concoction is on the menu today at New York’s Fort Ticonderoga, where people dressed in colonial-era costumes will demonstrate how it was made in the 18th century.

Chocolate was part of an American soldier’s daily ration 200-plus years ago. They grated it, placed it in pots with other ingredients and drank the heated mixture.

The new product is being produced by the makers of M&M's candy and a major benefactor of Fort Ticonderoga. It’s also available at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, and three historic sites in Virginia — Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon and Monticello.